David Cameron will urge a probe into missing people when he attends the
Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka next week, following a Telegraph
investigation

David Cameron will urge a “thorough” investigation into the fate of thousands of missing people in Sri Lanka when he attends a Commonwealth summit in the country, William Hague has promised.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary endorses a call made by this newspaper for a new inquiry into disappearances in Sri Lanka. The United Nations has recorded 5,676 “outstanding cases” of missing people – more than anywhere else in the world, apart from Iraq.

During an investigation in Sri Lanka last month, The Daily Telegraph highlighted the disappearances of Anton Saniston Manuel, a fisherman who was kidnapped by suspected state agents in 2008, and Prageeth Eknaligoda, a journalist who was abducted in 2010 after criticising President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“We will raise the cases of people who have disappeared and call for thorough, open investigations into their fate,” writes Mr Hague.

Labour has urged the Government to boycott the Commonwealth summit, which begins next Friday, because of the Sri Lankan government’s human rights record. Mr Hague acknowledges that “appalling alleged violations of human rights” took place in 2009, when the army won the civil war by crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a final battle that claimed about 40,000 lives.

“Four years later, Sri Lanka is still a country where civil society is suppressed, where NGOs and the media are routinely intimidated, where journalists and critics of the government have disappeared, and where no one has been held to account for alleged war crimes including rape and sexual violence,” writes Mr Hague.

But attending the summit was the right decision none the less, he argues. “We do no good for the situation in Sri Lanka by sitting on the sidelines,” writes Mr Hague. “By visiting, we can see the situation on the ground first-hand, meet people on all sides of the conflict, and raise our concerns frankly and directly with the government.”

Mr Cameron will be the first foreign leader to visit Northern Province, where most of the disappearances have taken place. “For my part,” says Mr Hague, “I will meet journalists and human rights activists – the very people who are courageously trying to bring about reform, and who might not otherwise ever meet a British minister or travel to the UK. We will urge Sri Lanka’s leaders to guarantee freedom of expression, to ensure justice for war crimes, and to reach a sustainable political settlement.”

Mr Hague concludes: “Attending the summit is not a betrayal of Britain’s values – it is the way we advance them.”

Human Rights Watch has also urged Britain to demand an independent international inquiry into disappearances. Brad Adams, the head of its Asia Division, welcomed Mr Hague’s promise, but cautioned him to be wary of any investigation by Sri Lanka’s own government. “It’s very important that the British Government is calling for an inquiry, but it needs to be international because the Sri Lankan government cannot be trusted to investigate itself,” he said.